The only thing more astonishing than Star Citizen's ability to extract funds from its community is the eagerness with which said community has supported it. Across thirteen years, Cloud Imperium Games has raised over $800 million from a convoluted mixture of paid alpha access, subscriptions, merchandising, microtransactions, and selling spaceships that cost hundreds of dollars to players (I suppose you could call these "macrotransactions").
While there have been controversies and backlashes to the game in the past, such as complaints over changes to the roadmap, the community has rarely revolted en masse at the prospect of paying for stuff. But the recent reveal of an upgrade for Star Citizen's ships has finally caused to community to raise a finger and say "hold on a minute…"
